Weekday Dinner: Panang Curry

Panang curry with cauliflower, tofu puffs, edamame, coconut flakes and jackfruit.

Weekend Cooking: Masala Dosa and Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

Both of these look and were pretty messy. The masala dosa was made using the same mix as last time, but this time were topped with potato and peas spiced with mustard seeds and garam masala. Tasty but I need to work on the dosa so the filling can actually be rolled up inside.

The vegetarian shepherd's pie used the leftover potato from the dosa with mushrooms and fake vegetarian meat crumbles. The "sauce" was the leftover tomato sauce from a can of sardines in tomato sauce. Messy but tasted OK. More salt and spice next time.

Leftovers: Spicy Rice

Picked up this Indian spice packet mix on impulse while shopping on Devon Avenue during my Christmas trip to Chicago. With leftover rice, some frozen soup mix and fried eggs strips this was a tasty and quick dinner for a busy week.

Weekend Cooking Repurposed: Chickpea and Pea Curry

The original chickpea and pea curry topped with coriander and served with rice.

Added hardboiled egg as the remainder wasn't sufficient for a meal, topped with toasted coconut and served with coriander dosa from a box mix. An overheavy hand with the coconut meant the curry became very dry. Dosas turned out very thick but tasted soft, fluffy and deliciously tangy and spicy. The box makes eight so lots more opportunities to experiment with add-ins and cooking.

Leftovers: Water-boiled Beef

Repurposed leftover Sichuan water-boiled beef (shui zhu niu rou)into lunch on New Year's Day as a topping over noodles. The beef came from a local Cantonese restaurant that recently added a few Sichuan dishes to the menu, so wasn't as spicy as I would have liked, and the beef was over-tenderized.

Weekend Cooking: Bulgar with Spicy Beef and Capsicum

More clean up the fridge dishes, this time trying to finish huge capsicums purchased at a clearance. Very tasty and somewhat healthy with the bulgar too. Spicy packet sauce.

Weekday Dinner: Spicy mince, chives and sweet potato

Deliciously spicy stir fry of mince, chives and sweet potato made for a quick and not too heavy weekday dinner. I'm trying in the coming weeks to make my annual grocery budget AND eat down the contents of my jam-packed freezer. Not much success with this dish which only used a miniscule portion of frozen meat. But lots of chives and sweet potatoes remaining so looks like this will be repeated.

Weekday Dinner: mushroom, chicken and bulgar curry

A punnet of bland white mushrooms and surfeit of cooked bulgar led to this concoction. Added some chicken and spiced with Shan murgh cholay mix. Topped with coriander and eaten with potatoes. Rather awful looking, but a delicious weekday dinner.

Dessert was Turkey Hill black raspberry ice-cream.

Rice noodle soup trio

Top left: rice noodles with kimchee, fishcake, scallops, cuttlefish balls and mushroom.
Bottom left: rice noodles in tom yum soup with tofu, tomatoes and coriander.
Bottom right: rice noodles with spinach and cuttlefish balls.

Weekday Dinner: Cabbage with mustard seeds

My first attempt at one of my favourite Indian dishes proved disappointingly bland. Partaken with fried eggs and masala paratha.

A snack, added mainly for the photo.

Weekend Cooking: Busy Saturday

Today was the usual Saturday with meals prepared for the coming week's lunches, a curry for dinner during the week and some baking as well. A fairly typical production so I can just reheat something for dinner on nights I come back dead tired and a little variety for lunch keeps things interesting and stops me spending money eating out. The best part is this takes only 1 hour as the rest is just preparing 2 portions of my weekend meals.

Another version of cheater's cake with plain yoghurt substituted for the milk/egg. Topped with wrinkly pluots, this is a very soft pudding-like cake with a slight tang. Delicious and so pretty too.

Pluot cake as part of a healthy lunch.
Fried rice noodles with chives, fishcakes and shrimp. Pickled radish adds a sweetness to the dark soy and oyster sauce.

Cauliflower, minced chicken and spinach in Shan murgh cholay mix with a spinach paratha. So, so spicy it makes me sweat.

Weekend Cooking: Vegetable panang curry

Another riff on panang curry to use up my aging cauliflower and capsicum. Eked out with tomato and edamame. Have been adding more cauli to it during the week to create the neverending curry. So spicy and flavourful for these chilly nights.

Weekend meals

A long weekend so more time to cook than usual.
Clockwise from top left:
Tom yum bulgar with black beans and tomatoes.
Panang curry with hardboiled egg, edamame and spinach. Very spicy!
Fried rice noodles with chives and sausage. So moreish.
Bean threads tossed with soy sauce and sesame oil and cold cucumber and egg tofu.

Il Cioccolato di Bruco Ancho

This tiny 68% cacao 35g bar from Italy is one of the best chocolate chilli bars I've tried. It's sweeter than other bars and the chilli hits you later rather than at first bite. The spiciness lingers in the throat. Smooth and fine in texture. Love the bright red packaging too!

Weekend Cooking: curry and sea bass

Very spicy chickpea curry with tomatoes and zucchini for extra fiber and to cut the spiciness of the curry (created with Shan murgh chole mix). Excellent with an English muffin.

Steamed sea bass with mushrooms and eggplant. A bit messy as the sea bass fell apart when I transferred it from the microwave bowl to the plate.

Weekend Cooking: Keema with naan

Mise en place and the finished product.

Weekend Cooking: Yellow curry and green tea agar

Maesri yellow curry with cauliflower, edamame, spinach and beef make an aromatic and tasty meal.

Not the most attractive of photos but this is surprisingly tasty, with a softer texture than my usual agar jellies. Strong grassy, slightly bitter flavour makes this a nice digestif.

Weekend Cooking: Keema with paratha

Minced chicken, peas and onions cooked in Shan Keema curry mix. Topped with coriander and accompanied by paratha. Simmering the mince and other ingredients made this so much better than my previous dry frying attempts. Yummy!

Weekend Cooking: Vindaloo and mushrooms

Asian Home Gourmet beef vindaloo with a Deep brand paratha make a tasty and spicy dinner for this cold winter day. Sidedish of yummy leeks and mushrooms.

Weekday Dinner: Chickpea curry with onion naan

A very tasty and spicy Shan mix for murgh cholay (chickpeas, chicken, onions, garlic dressed with corainder) with Swad onion naan made a quick and delicious lunch. Even my picky parents liked the curry.